



INTRODUCTION. xix 



more reason is developed the less are the other powers employed ; conse- 

 quently, so far as man is concerned, they have lost much of their force 

 through disuse. To credit birds with such a marvellous power as blind and 

 infallible instinct in building their nests would be to place them far beyond 

 man himself in intelligence, and allot to them a faculty which is super- 

 human. The evidence that we are able to collect all tends toxlisprove 

 such a mysterious power. Birds brought up in confinement do not make 

 a nest typical of their species, and in most cases content themselves with 

 forming the merest rudiments of a nest, merely heaping a lot of material 

 together on which they lay their eggs ; and in some cases they do not make 

 even this slight provision. This may be Instinct (or, more properly 

 speaking, Hereditary Habit) the blind impulse to make a nest ; but with- 

 out tuition, or some standard to work by, it is a failure. The same remarks 

 apply to man ; for with all his boasted reason he is equally as incapable 

 of building a habitation peculiar to his race, if he has not seen one or 

 been initiated in the secrets of its construction. Savage man neither alters 

 nor improves any more than the birds ; and each of his great races has a 

 peculiar style of architecture. The Arab and the American Indian dwell 

 in tents, the negro builds a hut, and the bushman lives in caves, whilst the 

 Malay erects his house on posts. Transfer an infant of any one of these 

 races of men, say to civilized Europe, and is it conceivable that when grown 

 up to manhood he would set to work to build a tent, a hut, or a house on 

 posts, according to the particular race to which he belongs, instinctively, 

 and with no instruction ? If man is so helpless in such a case, why should 

 not the bird be the same ? Why should a creature infinitely below man in 

 so many of its intellectual attributes be so far in advance of him in this 

 particular respect ? The same remarks equally apply to a bird's song and 

 to the language of mankind each have to be learnt. A bird's intellectual 

 powers advance towards maturity much more quickly than in the human 

 species. A young bird three or four days old is capable of considerable 

 powers of memory and observation, and during the time that elapses in 

 which it is in the nest it has ample opportunity of gaining an insight into 

 the architecture peculiar to its species. It sees the position of the nest, 

 it notes the materials, and when it requires one for itself, is it so very 

 extraordinary that, profiting by such experience, it builds one on the same 

 plan ? Again, birds often return to the place of their birth the following 

 season, and possibly see the old home many times ere they want one for 

 themselves. This, aided by the strong hereditary impulse to. build a nest 

 similar to the one in which they were born, inherited from their parents, 

 aids them in their task. Further, we know that some birds do not breed 

 for several seasons after they are hatched, and consequently see the older 

 birds at work and profit by the experience. The nests they build may, 

 and do often, vary from the original type in many slight particulars ; and 



